My perspective (A Darkest minds story from another's perspective)
by Angelbooknerd23
Summary: Elsbeth is a PSI who has lost all hope, follow her story and learn more about her and see what Ruby's world is like from an outside perspective. Also, a little romance of her own along the way. The darkest minds is my favourite book and I hope I have done it justice.
1. Meet Elsbeth Chapter 1

**"AN: This is my first fanfic so I'm sorry if it's not that good. I have tried my best to edit it but if there are any spelling or grandma mistakes, sorry in advanced. I hope you enjoy my fanfic. Oh! And one more this before you start reading this I would like to say that the main character is called Elsbeth. Oh wait, I have another thing, if I have made any mistakes about what really happened please correct me and let me know. I will appreciate all feedback :D ENJOY!" **

My perspective.

I stare up at the ceiling, inches from my face. I'm thinking about how depressing and sad our bunch is. Every night we come up with these stories about princess trapped in castles. We come up with story as a representation of hope.

I gave up on hope. There's no point, no point to have high expectations, when all your doing is building your self a tower. The higher the tower the further you fall. One day your tower will be so tall, the moment the fact hits you that there is no hope, the harder you hit the ground.

I hit that ground really hard. I had a really tall tower.

I was nine, nine years old. I had a happy family. One I thought loved me. Well parents I thought loved me. I had a happy child hood. I was that kid who didn't care what others thought and just did it. I always did almost anything and everything that came to mind. Maybe I did all those stupid and ridiculous things because somewhere deep down I new nothing lasted forever. Not happiness, joy, or even love.

I always had a load mouth and spoke up for others, fought back. I didn't stay in the shadows. I never let anyone push me down.

At least I didn't when I was a kid. At least I didn't before I knew pain.

It kind of shocked me that day. The day the PSF's came. I was at school, it was raining. I rode my bike to school that morning. We didn't live that far from the school, just a few minuets ride on my bike. But it was strange that morning I had concluded years ago.

It started out like every other morning. Mom made my big sister Alina, who was 15, and I breakfast, and packed our lunch. After that point things went a little differently. Alina goes to a different school to me, so dad drove her. But he didn't offer me a ride even though he usually does when its raining.

Alina and dad left before me because they had further to go. But when they went to leave dad didn't hug me or give me a kiss good bye. When I gave my big sister a hug good bye, dad got in the car and didn't come out. Alina got in the car and dad just drove off without even a wave goodbye.

When it was time for me to leave to get to school Mom didn't even leave the kitchen. I called out to her and all she said was "bye Elsbeth, make sure you get to school." What she said didn't make sense to me than, but it does now.

When I got to school the PSF's took me. I hadn't even locked my bike. I rode with my school bag in my front basket on my bike. So, the second I got off my bike my hands were painfully wrench behind my back and zip tied. Tight.

I was the second on the big yellow bus. The first was a girl, maybe a little older than me with green eyes and brown hair, she was still in her pyjama's. I would later come to know a her as Ruby. I sat down on the set-in front of her next to the window.

It was that moment that I started to build my tower.

I looked out the window and saw a silver car. It had reminded me of our old family car. The one Alina and dad had drove of in that very morning. At the thought of Alina I stated to lay the first bricks of my tower.

At the begging, it was that hope that kept my going, the tower I was slowly building for myself. It kept me quite on the bus. It kept me awake in the ware house we were kept in overnight. Sitting on the cold floor, still zip tied, not allowed to sleep.

It was what kept me still, and obedient when the PFS tolled us to stay on the ground frozen because a PSF had shot herself and a boy told us to run. But got he killed instead. I listen to the PSF because of my hope, I didn't want to die, I knew it was pointless to run at that point. I wasn't stupid enough to think they wouldn't beat us, wouldn't catch us, and maybe even wouldn't shoot us. Not after all the kids they had hit on that dreadful bus for crying. I was intuitive and smart cookie at nine, but naïve. I had the delusional idea that my sister would come get me and if I ran I would end up like that dead kid lying in the, mud, less then 20 feet away.

I was classified as a green. All the girls that were on my bus that day, that were green got put into cabin 27, our cabin. Later, that hope, that tower didn't just simply obey anymore. I used my tower as strength. It got me in trouble a lot. I was often punished and beat for all the times I looked into a PFS's eyes in challenge or stood up for another green in need. One day the PFS's had, had enough. That was the day my tower crashed. That was just over half a year ago now.

The girl standing next to me getting harassed by a PFS. He was yelling in her face, telling her to start over. He threw everything she had done, over the side of the table, onto the floor in the new row over. He tolled her to pic it up. Now this was where everything changed for me. Usually I just stand up verbally but what the PFS did next changed everything.

This PFS was new and had just rotated shifts to our cabin. When the girl bent down to pic everything up the PFS firmly planted his foot into her back and pushed down on her. Hard. He pushed so hard even after she hit the ground, she kept going forward and went flying head first into the table in front of her. There was a large smudge of blood on the flood, more pooling at the girls face from her nose, that was probably broken. She was also out, out cold. The two girls standing at those tables just stood there and gawked. I on the other hand did no such thing.

I jumped over my table and shoved the PFS in the chest. Hard. I was strong for a fourteen-year-old. He went stumbling backward and hit his head on a table. At first he cracked his eyes open slightly, but only to shut then again as he lost consciousness. Suddenly there was a white noise machine right in my ear knocking me out with a wave of agony.

After that my memory is slightly blurry. I remember the pain. I was hit over and over. And when that was done in stuffed into dog kennel. It was winter, and it had been snowing. The snow had crept into the kennel. I was delirious, from pain and cold and hunger. I was cramped all over. Squished into a dark cold dog kennel. I'm not quite sure how long I was in there, after the first few days I lost track of time. I think it was maybe, a week? Or longer I think. I wasn't given food often. Maybe once every two days. Even when they did give me food it wasn't much. I couldn't stomach much till they let me out was I given any food. I was given water, they didn't want me to starve to death. In that dark place that precious water was bliss. In that time all I could thing was she wasn't coming. Alina wasn't coming. For that first night I cried and cried until I couldn't cry no more. My tower was falling, it was crumbling. My hope was shrivelling.

When I got out I wasn't the same. I didn't talk, I don't talk. I did everything I was told, am tolled. Ever since that day I have been lulled into a numbness. Everything I do is on auto pilot.

The only time I pause to think is at time like now. Right before I go to sleep. Sometimes I replay that final morning. Sometimes I go over the super hero stories I came up with when I was a kid with my best friends. I mostly go over the ones where the hero saves the day. Where, Stick Guy is defeated and his minions too.

It's not hope, I refuse to believe it's hope. I know it's not. When I think about those child hood stories I think about the hero and how there is no one to safe them. They have to save themselves.

I'm lying here thinking about all that has happened when the girl in the bunk below me interrupts my thoughts.

"Hey, Elsbeth. Get up. Something is going on" she whispers.

There is a commotion. Something is happening by Ruby and Sam's bunk. I hop out of my bed to see Ruby, eyes shut, in a slumped sitting up position with Sam holding her by the shoulder. Sam is shaking Ruby, franticly saying her name, but she won't wake up.


	2. Tildon vs Sam Chapter 2

**AN: sorry if this chapter is kinda short but I hope you enjoy :D**

Chapter two

That was around half a year ago now. Sam has been torn up about it. Ashly has also gone missing. Nether of the girls have retuned. The PFS told us that she was killed by IAAN. I don't believe them. Not because I don't think she's dead, but because I don't think it was IAAN. I genuinely think that these monsters killed her. Some believe that she escaped, but only one or too. Most believes the IAAN story. But I can't.

We live in a world where we are mercilessly beat and forced to hard labour. Believing that they wouldn't kill her is like saying guns don't kill.

When I wake up and am on my way to the breakfast hall I try to restrain my shivering. Its freezing today. And raining but rain means no snow so that's good. But suddenly all my attention it drawn by some new people guarding us. Their wearing red. The same uniforms we sewed numbers onto and buttons onto three months ago. My green brain starts to connect the dots. There Reds, like the uniforms their wearing. They must be the ones from before they were all taken away. But not only those ones because there are too many and I don't recognise many of them. They must have been sent to a camp just for Reds. Telling from the little emotions on their faces they must have been re-educated or something. Maybe worse. Who know how far those monsters will go.

The Reds don't carry any weapons, just zip ties. Makes sense since there practically living weapons.

After breakfast we go to the factory. It's this huge stupid building where we sort and clean stuff. Its where my whole perspective of life changed. Its where- NO! I won't let myself go there. I centre my self and set my brain on auto pilot. We have disassembled old cell phones, split them into three parts. My brain is on auto pilot but then I hear a voice.

"Work faster"

_Tildon. _There have been rumours going around about him. That he sexually harasses kids. No matter where the camp controllers put him he always finds someone to harass. And he doesn't discriminate. Boy and girls, so no one feels left out. Lovely.

And now he has been recently moved to our cabins. Lovely. Oh and it sounds like he might have found his new "pet". Double lovely. I keep my eyes on my work not trying to get distracted. I hear Tildon call a search. But I don't hear anyone moving to go and search the poor girl. I notice some of the girls attention near my going to the other side of the room.

Then I hear Vanessa and Ave scream and I can't stand it anymore. Curiosity get the better of me and I turn around to see Sam standing there with Tildon behind her nursing a bloody nose. Oh God. Flash backs appear quickly but I shove them away. Oh no. No other girl should ever go back into those cold dog kennels. No one.

But it looks like Sam just bought her a ticket. Tildon is fumbling for his white noise machine. I quickly put down the cell phone I'm holding and press my finger to my ear, preparing for the wave of pain. But then Sam lashes out at him with her foot kicking it away. Then she hauls her hand back and gives him a smack, racking her hands along his check, spraying blood everywhere.

He tries to club her with his meaty hand in a blind rage. The girls around her crawl under their tables, and a PFS hits Sam in the back of the head with a baton and she is effectively knocked to the ground. Ten there is a Red straddling her. She is thrashing beneath him, her arms ay wrenched from beneath her and zip tied behind her, then he leans down to her face and says something, and she stops thrashing.

Then all the reds in the room start to put ear plugs in. My green brain is telling me that calm control is about to go off, so I quickly jam my hands once more, into my ears and get on the ground ducking my head between my legs. Several other girls read the sings too and do the same. Barely a second later the calm control goes off. It hurts so much. My body cramps up instantly with pain.

Once the calm control is turned off, I quickly get back to my work, ears still ringing, trying to find some peace in my routine. I could hear Tildon losing it but another PSF shuts him down.

For a few minutes there was no noise, just the sound of cell phones being pulled apart as girls got back to work. Then I could hear the camp controllers voice.

"Fine, then put her in isolation. Two weeks"

The words ring though me and I barely notice when Tildon starts up again. _Two weeks. _Sam will be spending two weeks in those dreaded kennels. My blood boils at the thought, but I can't move. No one else should face two weeks in that hell hole. No one. Except maybe Tildon and all the bloody PFS, including the President. They should all feel what we have felt, suffer as we have. Live though every bit pain we have. Then they should all go to hell.

I accidentally span the pics of plastic in my hands. I look around and see that Sam is gone and everyone is going back to work.

My brain goes back in to auto piolet.

I lay in my bunk staring at the ceiling listening to the other girls tell their story. Today to doesn't escape and is instead locked up in a dungeon all alone and doesn't see a soul for the rest of her said life.

This isn't the first time the story has had a dark turn, where the damsel, or whatever, doesn't escape. It's happened before, usually when one of us is in isolation or, just, gone.


	3. Ruby returns Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After Sam returns she has a limp. She won't tell anyone what's happened.

Around a two and a half months later Ruby shows up. When she shows up in our cabin after the last rotation we are all shocked. Once the PSF has finished counting us and adds Ruby to the tally we all rush to her. Ellie is crouched down in front of Ruby, who is sitting on her bunk

"Oh my God." She keeps saying it over and over.

She reached up and gently hold Ruby's face between her hands like she needs to touch her, to make sure she's here. I am standing still, just watching Ruby. In my chest I can feel the bricks of my tower of hold being placed down once more. I try to knock them down but when Ruby tells up she escaped with the help of a nurse, my heart lays more bricks, faster and quicker.

She got out, its possible. _NO! _I can't do this to my self! I quickly walk over to my bunk, climb up and start to sob quietly.

I sob for Ruby, I sob for Ashly, I sob for myself, and all the kids stuck in this miniature hell. I can't build another tower. I just _can't. _I don't want to fall. What happened to Ruby was a fluke, a one off. I tell myself this, but I know it's not true. I know It's possible, but I won't let myself hope that I will leave this place someday, that isn't as a dead body. Ashly is dead and gone, I know it in my bones.

Ellie askes Ruby if Ashly got out. Ruby says she doesn't know, but my stomach tells me she does. And that Ashly is dead. I can't just feel it.

Before I chicken out and my tower is completely dust I ask Ruby a question.

"What was it like?" I ask, "Outside?"

A small laugh escapes from her lips as she looks up at me. "Strange and so . . . load. Terrifying, violent . . . but open, wide open and beautiful." Her eyes move from each face in our cabin. "Almost ready." She finishes.

The question is on the tip of my tong, but Ellie beats me.

"For what?"

"For us"

One brick is laid on the dust of my fallen tower.

-time skip-

It's the next day and were working in the garden. Working in the garden is the only thing here that I remotely like. When I was a kid me and Alina used to grow stuff in the garden. We used to have our own patch and grow vegetables and flowers.

The sound of whispering interrupts my musing. I quickly glance behind my and see Ruby, Sam and Vanessa whispering. I get back to my weeding, ignoring their chatting.

Their chatting abruptly stops and is replaced by Tildon's snarling voice "-We work silently or we don't at all."

I turn and look behind me, and Tildon has his hand in Sam ponytail. Ruby is staring at him with a frown on her face. Then suddenly a dark patch starts to form in the front of his pants. He wet his pants!

I suppress back a laugh, snorting quietly into my hand. Tildon starts muttering shit when a PSF asks for his status. He says shit again, he looks around, noticing all the girls are glancing at him and each other. He quickly starts to walk off but trips instead. I supress a laugh again, this is the funniest thing I see in years. I quickly shift my attention beck to the weeds refusing to watch as he picks himself up and walk briskly towards the control tower.

-time skip-

It's two days later and I'm lying in my bunk thinking about what it must have been like for Ruby in the outside world, when Ellie's voice interrupts my thoughts.

"Ruby? It's your turn."

Normally Ruby passes the story onto Sam, so she surprises me when she says something

"The girl . . ." she begins.

I don't normally pay that much attention to the stories, but the fact Ruby has something to say has my interest piqued.

"The girl cut herself loose from the rope and knocked. The bandit off the horse in front of her. She took the reins and turned the horse around the road, heading back in the direction they had come from- back towards the castle."

The girls started to mummer, I slide down from my bunk and sit down next to the girl in the bunk below mine, so I can actually see Ruby.

"She used the darkness. She left he horse in the nearby forest and crept towards a passage she new was hidden in the far stone wall. The fighting had stopped once the knights int black had taken the castle. Thy locked the white knights out, and they were unable to help the families trapped inside. But no one noticed a small, plain girl coming in through the back door. She looked like a helpless servant girl, bringing in a basket of food into the kitchen. For day she stayed in the castle, watching. Waiting for the right moment. And then it came. She slipped back outside and made her way through the shadows of night unlocking the gate for the white knight to come poring back in."

What Ruby said intrigues me. A strange thought crossed my mind, is she talking about herself? Is she planning an escape? I trying to crush this thought, this slither or hope. But I couldn't, it was to strong and my tower was slowly building its self-up again.

Sam's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Why would she come back? Why wouldn't she just escape-hide? Sam asked Ruby quietly.

Ruby blew out a soft breath, as if in relief.

"Because," Ruby continued, "in the end, she couldn't leave her family behind."

Every word Ruby said was another brick on my tower. Her words making me surer she's up to something. Something big.


	4. Hello Charly Chapter 4

**AN:I have really enjoyed writing these fanfics and I hope you enjoy reading them. **

Chapter 4

I was right. She did it. She got use out. I'm not sure how she did it, but she did it. Ruby did it. She couldn't leave her family behind.

When we got out there was a large group of parents outside of Thurmond. So many families. I had, had a feeling mine wouldn't be there, but my small tower stopped me from believing that Alina wasn't there. She had the be, she just had to. And she was, she was there staring franticly into the crowd of kids flooding out of Thurmond. When she had finally spotted me, she started to scream my name and cry.

"ELS! ELSBETH, ELSBETH!"

When the PSF finally let us through to our families I bolted to Alina. I jumped into her arms crying, brawling my eyes out for the first time since the time my tower fell.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" I said sobbing

Alina Jerked me away in surprise.

"Sorry, your sorry? What for?" she asked a frown on her face and look of sorrow.

"For giving up on you, I thought you had given up, stopped looking for me" I said between sobs and buried my face into her chest.

"Ohh, Els, its's okay. I never gave up on you. I kept searching and didn't stop. I knew you were out there, I new you were alive. I could feel it." She paused and tapped on her heart "Right here"

After that we went back to her campervan. She told me that she had run away from home when Mum and Dad had tolled her that they had sent me away. She had stolen the emergency cash from behind the fridge and all of Mum's most expensive jewellery and the family laptop and snuck out in the night, two days after I had left. At first, she had wondered, going from place to place, checking for signs of me on the laptop at free internet cafes. When the economy crashed she had stolen a car and hot wired it (our grandpa uses to be a mechanic and taught us a whole bunch of stuff about cars). She siphoned gas and just drove around, sleeping in the car. When she got older she found a job, working for a mechanic, as an assistant. She bought herself this caravan.

Back to the present, I'm still sitting in Alina's caravan. I'm eating some two-minute noodles and she is telling me that she hasn't heard from Mum or Dad since she ran away. I'm thinking about what might have happened to them and if they still live in our old house, when Alina interrupts my thoughts.

"Hey, uh, Elsbeth, I need to, uh tell you something."

She used my full name, so she must be serious.

"Okay?" I say hesitantly.

"I'm a Green" She blurts out, she says it so quickly that I almost didn't hear her.

"huh?"

I don't get it. How can she be a green? She's too old.

"I'm a Green. I can remember stuff really well." She repeats, slower this time.

"But your too old." I say disbelieving.

"I know, but I am, no one noticed because I was too old to be a PSI. Ever since I was 10 I can remember everything. I know what you wore on the day you were taken to a camp, I know what we had had for dinner the night before and what we had for lunch and what we talked about during that meal."

"Wha?"

"I'm serious, I can remember everything from a month before my tenth birthday, vividly."

"Why didn't Mum and Dad sent you away to the camps too?" I ask. I can't believe it. My sister a green. Just like me.

"Mum and Dad did suspect anything of me because I was too old to be a PSI."

"Wow." I say not quite sure appropriate response.

"Oh, and one more thing I didn't tell you, I also stole Mum and Dad's credit cards. I had memorised their pins accidentally." She gave me a guilty smile like she was letting me in on a secret, like we used to when we were kids.

"Oh wow, well I bet they deserved it."

She smiled at me and gave me a big hug.

"We are going to be ok, from now on its just you and me." She says into my hair.

I want to believe her, I really do, but I have a feeling that also long as I'm a Green there will always be problems, big or small. I don't say anything in reply. I just hug her tighter, knowing that at least I will be happy with my sister and that whatever hard times come, she will be there with me every step of the way.

-Time skip-

It has been four days since we got out of Thurmond and Ruby's face is all over the news. Wow, she did a lot while she was gone. And omg god, her leg was broken! By a PSF! Oh god. She is also an Orange, Okay, wow but Okay. There are also the stories about some of her friends like Zu, a yellow girl who is 12 and her boyfriend Liam and his big brother, Cole, who like my sister, is a PSI who is an adult. Well I mean was like my sister, he's dead now.

I'm watching the press conference on Tv about what is going to happen to the PSI, me, and the new laws that will be put in place.

Cruz is full of shit. I am listening to what she is saying, and I can't believe it. _DESTROY THE CAMPS?! _What!?

Community, COMMUNITY! Sounds like another camp to me. I have to live in a _community _if I don't want some bloody doctor sticking something in my head?! For the rest of my life!?

"That is _bullshit." _

That was Charles, -not me- another one of Ruby's friends. He begins to lay out what is so "_bullshit" _about what Cruz is saying.

"As an eighteen-year-old, I finally have the right to choose what I want for myself, but if I make the wrong choice, I'll still be punished for it?"

Cruz tells him to save his questions till the end, but Charles is not finished.

"I'm not finished," he continues, "If I were to choose not to have someone, potentially an incompetent someone, cut into my brain- the most important organ in my body- to 'fix' it, then I'm stuck in yet another camp, this time for the rest my life?"

You took the words right out of my mouth Charles. I am really liking Ruby's choice in friends.

A man in uniform tries to tell Charles it is not a camp (BULL) but Charles is having none of that. He goes on saying that it is a 'Community' with barbed fences and armed guards. That their reinforcing to America that the word _different_ means, _bad, ugly, dangerous. _He is not happy. The man tries (emphasis on the try) to reasons that we are dangerous and can use our abilities to commit crimes and have an unfair advantage. Rude.

"Yeah? So can a pile of money. It's what a person chooses to do with their abilities the matters. By locking someone up for making a choice about their body that they have every right to make, what you are essentially say is that, no you don't trust us. Not to make good choices, not to treat others well. I find that incredibly insulting-and, by the way, I seem to be in pretty good control of my abilities now, wouldn't you say?"

Alina grabs the remote and turns off the tv.

"I can't hear any more of this crap" she says. "I have to go to work, I asked my Charly my boss if you could come with me - he's a pretty nice guy, has grandkids your age- and he said yes"

She picks up her back pack and opens the door to the caravan.

"C'mon, let's go."

"Are you sure it's a good idea for me to go there with you?" I say thinking about all the tension going around the country, it's probably not safe for PSI to be out and about.

"Yeah, but it's better then leaving you hear alone. C'mon, you can stay in the back, no one will see you except Charly and I."

Okay, yeah, she has a point. I get up and follow her out. We walk for a good ten minutes before we arrive at an old family owned mechanics called Owen's Mechanic's. This place seems barely afloat, but it's right next to a petrol station, so it must get business from there. We walk inside and Charly greats us.

"Well hello there little, Misses, you must be Elsbeth, I've heard of you. Your sister here talks a sure lot about you." He says, "I have a granddaughter your age and two grandsons a little older."

"Where are they now?" I ask, although I already know the answer. In camps.

"Well there still stuck in them awful camps, but they will be out soon, I'm sure of it" He gives me a hopeful smile which I return fully. I'm really starting to like this guy. It will take me a while to fully trust adults, but Charly is so friendly and reminds me of my grandpa. He died when I was 8 but I still miss him, he's the one who taught me and Alina all we now about cars.

"What colours are your grandkids?" I ask.

"Well, me girl is a yellow and me boys are both blue." He says with that sweet southern ascent of his.

"Cool." I say, Alina interrupts us and tells me she has to go start work, but I can keep talking to Charly.

"Now, your sister been telling me that your grandpa taught both of yous about cars. Am I right?"

"Yes sir." I say because it just feels right, never mind I thought I would never pay respect to an adult ever again if they weren't my sister.

"Well then why don't you come and help me with this car over here, I'll give you five dollars at the end of the day if you can find what wrong with it and fix it. Your sister here tells me that your green, is that right?"

"Yes"

"Well get to it then" he says and show me to the car.

It feels great to tinker with something. It feels so different to what grandpa showed us, with my green ability I understand everything better and it all makes more sense. By the end of the day I have not only fixed what was wrong with the car but replaced a faulty light bulb in the right indicator, the rear left headlight and fixed up the radio.

"Well Misses, you seem to have a gift with the car, how about I hire you for real?" he says and hand me the five dollars at the end of the day.

"Sure. How much will I get payed?" I ask.

He lets out a small laugh, "Well, seeing as I don't really have the money to hire you and guy you a proper pay, I'll give your sister a 15% raise for your services."

"30% raise"

"20%"

"25%"

"You got yourself a deal darlin." Charly says and takes my hand and gives it a firm shake, a smile on his face.


	5. closed Rowan Chapter 5

It's about a week later and I'm in Charly's work shop, tinkering with a motorcycle. Charly says it was his son's, but he's going to give it to his oldest grandson, Rowan, who is eighteen.

Charly's other grandkids are called Seth and Ashly. Seth is seventeen and Ashly is my age, sixteen. Charly loves to talk and has taken to calling me girly. I don't really mind it that much and Charly super friendly. He mostly talks about his grandkids and cars. Rowan loved working with cars too and spent most of his time here, with his grandpa. Seth was less interested and was more in to comic book and stuff like that. Ashly liked to work with cars too, but not as much as Rowan. Ashly was also was really into art, she loved to paint, and there are a few of her old painting in the work shop. There actually really good. She did most of them when she was eight and nine, so for someone that age there really good. My favourite is a painting of the beach. It's really good.

Charly also told me about when they first manifested their abilities. Ashly developed her abilities a week before her ninth birthday when she electrocuted the car her and Charly were working on. Rowan developed his abilities about a year before hand, when he had gotten really upset and sent things flying around the room.

I had asked Charly why the PSF hadn't found him when that had happened. Charly had toll me that the only people who had witnessed it was him and Seth. They had cleaned up the mess before anyone could find out.

Seth had developed his abilities on Ashly's birthday. They were having Ashly's favourite food for dinner, fried chicken and chips. Charly had guessed that Seth must have been thirsty because a glass of water started to float over to him during the meal.

When I asked when they had gone to camp and which one that had gone to, he told me he didn't know what camp. But he never answered the first question. I didn't ask again, I have a feeling he doesn't want to talk about it.

I'm think about why he might not want to talk about it when a shout cuts through my thoughts. But it's not a shout of fear, it's the word 'girly' being called. Hmm, I wonder what Charly wants. He said he was going out about an hour ago but didn't tell me where. I walk out in into the main workshop where Charly is standing with an arm slung around a young girl's shoulders with strawberry blond hair, a face full of freckles and green eyes like Charly. She's about my age and has tears on her face. There are also too guys standing next to them. I look back to Charly, who has stopped shouting for me and notice that he has tears on his face too. I look over at the two guys and their eyes are a little red aswell.

"Elsbeth," he begins, using my actual name for the benefits of the new comers, who are obviously his grand kids, "These here are my grandkids, Ashly," he nods at the girl who still has tears running down her face. She gives me a small but welcoming smile, "Seth," he continues and points to the younger guy who has Dark blond hair and blue eyes. Seth nods at me with a shy smile on his face like he hasn't spoken to a girl in years, which is probably true, "and the oldest, Rowan" and he points to the older guy, who has dark blond hair- darker then his brothers, bordering on light brown- with green eyes. Rowan seems kind of closed off, but he gives me a small nod in recognition.

Charly looks at his grandkids and says "This here is Elsbeth, her sister works for me and Elsbeth got out of camp over a week ago and has been helping this old sole out. She's a green and quite the tinker, ain't that right girly?"

"Hi, yeah. My sister is a green too but she never went to camp. But I'm not working for free." I way giving Charly a sneaky smile and a raised eye brow.

"No, girly here made deal with me and got her sister a raise as payment, she did." He says giving me a sly smile which I retune.

Suddenly Rowan interrupts us and says, "What camp were you at?" His voice hold no emotion and I look over at him and his expression takes the joy out off me. He faces is blank.

"Uhh, I was at Thurmond. Why?"

"Really?!" Seth say's in disbelief. Seth gives me a young kid feel, like he's trying to make up for lost time. He probably is. But he's sweet, and I'm glad that the camps didn't kill his spirit.

"Uhh, yeah," I say looking at Seth but giving Rowan a side look. "What camp were you guys at?"

Rowan says nothing and just kind of walks off into the work shop. Instead Seth supplies my answer.

"Don't worry about him, he's a downer. We were at Black rock."

I'm not quite sure what to say now. We are kind of just standing there in an awkward silence building up between us.

I decide to break the silence and say "Well, I'm going to umm. . . get back to working on that motorbike and I'll leave you guys to, uh catch up"

I smile at Charly and he smiles back gratefully and head back to the motorbike.

When I get their Rowan is checking out the motorbike. He only glances up at me when I walk in then goes back to looking at the motorbike.

"What do you want?" He asks, not looking up from the motor bike.

"Nothing, I was just coming here to keep working on the motorbike." I say and lean on the frame of the door and watch Rowan as he examines my handy work.

"Huh" That's all he says before stilling on the bike and looks at it in appreciation.

"It's for you. Charly gave her to your dad when he was your age and he tolled me to fix her up for you, for when you got back."

"Yeah, I remember dad telling me about having a motorbike," As he says that a shadow passes over his face, but it quickly disappears, " Huh, you did a really good job"

"Thanks, I've been working on her for the past few days, she's was pretty banged up but she runs like a dream now."

"Her?" He asks.

"Yeah, Charly didn't tell me her name, so I named her Pegasus."

This gets a small laugh out of him. I raise an eye brow at him and give him a look that says _what's so funny?_

"You named her Pagasus!? Why?"

"Because . . . were out, free and Pegasus can take you where ever the wind takes you, like a real Pegasus. Like freedom."

At that his small smile and easy-going attitude disappear, and his face looks thoughtful and sad like I've reminded him of something.

For some strange reason I want to make him smile again so I say, "And also because when I was seven they were my favourite animal."

At that his small smile retunes a little and he lets out a tiny breathless laugh.

He looks up at me incredulously and says, "But they aren't even a real animal."

"Yeah well tell that to seven-year-old me." I say with a smile on my face and an exaggerated eye roll. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, I'm never like this, ever. But for some reason I feel compelled to make this guy, who I barely know, smile. He laughs again, almost fully this time. He looks at me and smiles. I smile back.

Then he gets up and walks past me out the door. Then stops, turns around and says, "Thanks,"

"What for?"

"For making me smile. . . I . . . haven't done that in a while and it was. . . "he pauses trying to think of what to say. "refreshing."

"Anytime." I find my self saying, a smile on my face. That's it, I think I've had too much sugar, of maybe its from all the fumes. Why am I acting this way?!

I watch Rowan walk off, still smiling softly.


	6. Bye Bye Seth Chapter 6

Time goes on, and months go by. Life is tough. But it's slowly getting better. Now that the economy is starting to get back on its feet, business Is slowly improving, we are getting more customers. Ashly and I have become best friends. In all our spare time we hang out and chat together. We have also been experimenting with her abilities, she can now turn any electrical item on and off at will and fry an electrical item from a distance (we figured that out by accident when we fried one of Charly's spare car batteries when trying to turn the car on).

Charly told us that their parents (Ashly and her brother's parents) threw all their stuff out when they went to the camps, but he had saved some of it. None of there old clothes fit them, so a few days after they had gotten back from the camps Charly took us all to the local op-shop to pick out some clothes.

It has been around two and a half years since we got out of those camps. Charly's business is better than it's been in the years since the economy crashed and Alina has gotten full guardianship over me. Our parents didn't put a clam in.

Rowan is still distant. He has gotten better then how he was when I had first met him and talks more and laughs and smiles too. But he still seems closed off. Like he can't come to terms with something. I've changed to. I can tell. When I look back at how I was two years ago when I first got out of Thurmond, I'm so different. I was quite back then, I was tense a lot and didn't talk very often, stewing in my own thoughts. But Ashly brought me out of my shell. We helped each other. I'm more confident now, and even a little boss if I'm honest with myself.

Another thing is Ruby has disappeared. About six months ago she disappeared with Liam her boyfriend after there was an attempt to take her life. No one knows where they went, and she is officially a fugitive for breaking the deal she had with the government that allowed her to keep her abilities. There are rumours going around that she and her boyfriend Liam are helping kids out. It's just a rumour though and no one knows for sure. I believe it. When she got back to camp, she seemed different, more confident, sure of herself and not scared anymore. She also got us out of camp, to state the obvious. So, I just have a feeling she would do something like that.

There are also roomers that there have been people selling PSI. To who? No one knows. Or, well I don't anyway.

I'm not surprised, it was bound to happen eventually with the camps no longer around and the PSF's not paying a fortune for our PSI ass's.

-"Rowan! Elsbeth!" I hear Ashly yell from out-side and the faint noise that largely resembles a white noise coming from the distance. I rush outside, Rowan con my tail, to see what Ashly's yelling about.

We meet her outside the workshop. She is panting hard and looks like she just ran a marathon, eyes tearing up and frantic.

"Ashly? Ashly what's wrong?" Rowan asks her with concerned eyes.

"It- It's-" That's all she gets out before she starts brawling. I rush to her and wrap my arms around her and collapse to the ground together and Rowan kneels down in front of us and tries to calm her down enough to tell us what wrong.

Once she gains enough composure she finally tell us what wrong. Once she does my world slows down and freezes as my chest constricts in fear.

"They took him, someone took Seth"

**AN: Sorry this chapter is kinda short, but I wanted to have a large time skip and leave this chapter on a cliff hanger. I will make the next chapter longer I promise, but I just thought this chapter might benefit from being shorter. I hope you enjoy, and I can't wait till you find out what happens next. Also, I'm Sorry that this is being posted so late. I have had a hectic couple of weeks but it's here now. The next chapters will be realised in like a few hours, there done I just need to edit them.**


	7. Unexpected road trip Chapter 7

"What?!" Says Rowan, shock passing over his face before he quickly schools it into neutrality.

"Some men, they- they attacked us while he was practicing his blue abilities and- and they just came out of nowhere and, just- just grabbed us." Ashly is speaking so fast I can barely understand her. "The guy who grabbed me, I- I electrocuted him using the phone that was on him. But they had already knocked Seth out." At this point she is crying again, "I ran off and they had white noise machine but I was already pretty far away and it wasn't as loud as what it was at Black Rock and- and I just kept running, thinking that I had to get help, but now they got Seth." Ashly lets out a loud sob then glances behind her and screams. "That's them, THERE!"

Rowan and I look over and see two men running from the direction that Ashly came.

"Shit." Rowan says quietly, a frown forming on his face. "Okay, Ashly, I need you to quickly run inside and grab Grandpa's emergency cash then meet me at Grandpa's car." Rowan says with a determined look on his face.

"All of it?" Ashly replies with a slightly shocked look on her face.

"Yes! Go!" Rowan shouts, Ashly jumps up and runs off into the shop. I glace behind me and see that the men are retreating. _Probably off to get their car_ I think to myself.

"ELSBETH!" Rowan shouts like he's been trying to get my attention for a while, "I said, I need you to go inside and grab some food and put it in Charly's car! Go!"

I jump up startled and run around the back of the shop and into Charly's adjoining house. On my way, at the door of the house, I grab Seth's backpack and dump its contents on the floor and rush into the kitchen. I grab two packs of crackers, four packs of pasta, three jars pasta sauce, a can of tuna, five packets of two minute, two loaves of bread, some premade vegetable stock and some flour and stuff it into the backpack. I also grab the picknick set from the bottom of the pantry and a big pot, whether we will need to use it as an afterthought.

Just as I'm about leave the house, I remember Charly mentioning that he has a whole heap of camping gear in the attic from when he took Ashly and her brothers camping when they were little. A gas stove, sleeping bags, the whole shabang.

I run down the hall way and pull down the access panel to the attic. I set down the backpack and picknick basket at the bottom of the ladder and scramble up. I hit my knee on the way up and wince as I make it to the top. I grope around in the darkness for the light switch and turn on the light. I look around and spot a huge dark green backpack lying next to a box labelled donate. I grab the backpack and drag it over to the ladder, hopping it has the gas stove in it, having no real time to check. As I'm about to attempt to drag the giant thing down the ladder a voice interrupts me.

"What are you doing?" I look down and see Rowan standing bellow me, a rucksack on one shoulder, leaning down to grab the backpack of food to put on the other shoulder.

"I'm grabbing Charly's camping gear." I say just as we hear a car pull up.

"C'mon, we got to hurry." Rowan says and makes a pulling motion with his hands. As soon as he does this, I feel a tug in my belly and I feel my self being pulled away from the ladder. I let go of the ladder knowing that Rowan won't let me drop. I quickly reach the bottom of the ladder in a matter of seconds. As soon as I reach the ground, I hear a scraping noise and see the back pack floating down. Once it reaches my level, I grab it and hall it onto my back. This is all done in a matter of seconds.

"Okay, let go." Rowan says and bends down to grab the picknick set and runs towards the door as fast as he can with his burden. When we are almost to the car we spot Ashly waiting next to the car looking around nervously and Rowan calls out to her.

"Ash! Go into Grandpa's office and grab the state crossing paper's!"

Ashly spins around and see's Rowan and I coming. She gives Rowan a nod and bolts off. The boot of the car pops open before we even reach the car (probably Rowans doing) saving time and we quickly chuck everything in.

I hear a banging noise coming from the front. Rowan looks at me and puts a finger to his mouth. Then he leans over, places something bumpy in my hand and whispers something into my ear.

"Get in the car, start it up, wait for Ash and me. I'll be back, I'm going to distract those guys."

"Wait, Rowan, that's not-"

"Go." He says and runs off just as Ashly runs into the room.

"Get in the car" I whisper loudly and run over to the driver's seat as Ashly gets into the back seat. I open the door, shove the keys into the ignition and start the car. I hear some shouts and a bang, then some footsteps running towards the car. I start to mentally panic thinking Rowan might have been injured or knocked and now those men were coming to get Ashly and me. But It's Rowan who runs into the room and jumps into to passenger seat. I wave of relief rushes over me only to decapitates seconds later as I see one of the men run through the door.

"Drive!" Rowan shouts. I back out as fast as I can leaving the men behind. Once we are driving off the men run out of the shop, probably to go and get there car. I back out onto the street and drive off as fast as I can, not caring about getting any tickets. I have barely been driving for ten seconds when I spot a big, back car coming up behind us, in the side view mirror.

"Shit" I curse. Rowan and Ashly glance behind us. Rowan repeats my curse.

"What do we do?" Ashly asks.

Rowan thinks for a few seconds then says, "Els, keep driving. No matter what you hear or see keep driving."

"Okay. . ." I reply hesitantly.

In my review mirror I spot Rowan opening a window and sticks most of his body out.

"Rowan! What are you doing!?" Yells Ashly, echoing my thoughts before I say them.

"Just trust my okay. And grab my leg." Rowan says and starts to make a strained puling kind of motion, like he's moving something from the other side of the street. Suddenly I hear a screeching and look in my review mirror and see two cars blocking the road. Then there is a screeching of tires breaking hard against the road and a bang of impact as the kidnapers car hit the cars blocking the road.

"Rowan! Seth's in there!" Ashly cries.

"He'll be okay, they didn't crash that hard"

"But we can't leave without Seth, we have to go back."

"We have to leave, there is nothing we can do right now. They have a white noise machine and we can't help Seth if we're captured too. We're going to have to come back with reinforcements."

Ashly goes silent.

I'm lost, stewing in my thoughts. My world, our world, has turned upside down again in a matter of five minutes. Then a though crosses my mind, or well, a person.

"I think I know just the person to help us." I say quietly to myself, clutching the diving wheel hard and look at Rowan, then back Ashly, not sure if they heard me.

I think to my self as we drive off into the night_ What have we gotten ourselves into?_

**AN: Okay, well if it isn't yet obvious, I know next to NOTHING about cars. NOTHING. I don't know types of cars, or how they work or anything like that. So, I'm sorry about the vagueness I use when talking about cars. Cars have never interested me. I just chose Elsbeth to be good with cars and that kind of stuff because I thought it would help with the story line and make a helpful skill for my Green character. I wanted for my Green girl to be useful away from a computer or solving a riddle. I wanted her to do something for herself that not any other kid could do. It also helped with where I wanted my fanfic to go. Although, all her friends are good with cars. . . But any who, it still got my story going where I wanted it too. I mean Elsbeth would have never met Rowan, otherwise right? OR AHSLY! **


	8. Doubts creeping in Chapter 8

**AN: Hello world, I'm back! Sorry I hadn't posted in around 3 months. Stuffs been hectic and I hadn't had the time or inspiration to write anything. Recently I had been reading a book series that was going kind of slow, and I didn't like it all that much, so I went looking for some better reading material. I found myself on my fanfic account looking for some Throne of Glass fanfics. From there I found myself writing a fanfic about TOG. I was checking my account and found a review on my TDM fanfic, a guest telling me to update. From there you now have this new chapter, I hope you enjoy ****😊. **

The campfire crackles and snaps. I have always loved to watch fire burn. It's so. . . peaceful. Hypnotic. I love to lose myself in the fire and let my thoughts run wild. Right now, I'm munching on two-minute noodles, my thoughts roaming around todays horrible events. After we escaped those men -whoever they were- we drove for several hours. It had been about 2pm when we left and we drove in shifts, Rowan and I swapping every few hours. Rowan had found an abandoned camping site in a small clearing and we stopped for the night.

We didn't really talk in the car. We all just lapsed into silence, stewing in our thoughts. We're all too worried and scared about what might happen, or be happening, to Seth. Ashley's been affected the most. While non-of us have been really talking, Rowan and I have exchanged a few words but Ashly, she hasn't said a word, at all.

Once we reached the camp sight, we took out the camping gear and I set up the gas stove while Rowan collected some wood to make a campfire. While I cooked some two-minute noodles for dinner Rowan set up a fire, lighting the kindling with a lighter. We haven't bothered to set up the tent, there shouldn't be any rain.

"Hey, uh, Els? Earlier you said that you knew someone who could help us find Seth?" Rowan says, interrupting my thoughts, sitting down beside me.  
"Uh, yeah. Remember how I told you that I know Ruby?" I say looking at him.  
"Yeah?"  
"Well, remember how she disappeared, and we heard all those rumours about her?" He gives me a small, hesitant nod in conformation of what I just said. "Yeah, well I was thinking we could try and find her, see if her and her friends could help us."  
Rowan sits quietly for a minute, thinking it over. I look at him and wonder what is going on inside that head of him. Rowan might not look like a thoughtful guy. To Those who don't know him well, he seems cold, bit of a brute. Maybe even a little arrogant in a way, doesn't talk, muscly, toned skin, sharp cheek bones, gorgeous green eyes. . . Suddenly I'm rather aware of how close he is sitting to me and shift uncomfortably, feeling a flare of heat flowing up my neck. I curse my-self for feeling like this when Seth is god knows where. Rowan interrupts my self-punishing thoughts and finally fills me in on what is going on in that head of his.  
"Okay, that sounds like a good idea. But how are we going to find her? The government has been looking for her for months. How are we supposed to find her, when trained professionals can't?"

This stumps me. How are we going to find them? No one knows where they are or how to find her. Hmmm. . .

"That's why we can find them. Remember East River, and how none of the adults could find it, the '_trained professionals'"_ I say with conviction. "But Ruby and her friends did, and so can we. Remember that article about Ruby, it said that she found East River through a clue given to them through other kids. Maybe we can find her the same way she did with east river. Plus. . . what else can we do but try?" I say, finishing with a shrug, looking over at him.

Rowan sits there for a moment, not replying, just staring at the campfire. After a few moments just when I think that he's not going to reply, he takes my hand and gives It a squeeze. He turns to look at me.

"You really think we can find him?" He says, voice thick with emotion.  
"Of course." I reply, squeezing his hand back, turning back to stare at the hypnotising flame.

***

I wake up to the sound of murmuring. I can hear Rowan's deep voice and a whimpering sound coming from across the fire. I open my eyes up a little and spot Rowan on the other side of the campfire Ashly curled up in her sleeping bag next to him.  
"Ash, where going to find him. I promise" Rowan says.  
"You- "sniff*"- pro-promise that. You know you c-can't"  
"Your right, but I can promise that we're not going to stop looking. Never. Not- not till we find a till we find a body" Rowan's voice wavers on the word body. As if just saying it out loud will make it happen. Saying this just makes Ashly cry even more. Rowan places a hand on her laying form and rubs her back in gentle circles, his eyes far away.  
"Ohh, it's my fault.," She moans, "it was my idea to go and practice, I'm so stupid!" Ashly explodes, Rowan looking at her sharply," Why would we be doing that out in the open! And I just let them take him. It's all my fault" She starts crying again, Rowan pulling her up so she can cry into her big brothers' shoulder.  
"No, Ash. Stop that. You couldn't have known that someone would try to snatch you two," He says, clutching her tight," You can't think that. We going to find Seth, and we need to be one hundred percent. I need you to be ready for anything. Ashly we're not going to find Seth if you can't pull it together." He says, voice shaking oh so slightly when he says his missing brothers name.

After a minuet her sniffles quite until there completely gone, replaced by the whistle of sleep after crying. Rowan gently eases his little sister into her sleeping bag and to the ground. He then seems to fold in on himself, his head bent over his knee's hands covering his face. I get out of my sleeping bag, making sure to make enough noise as to warn Rowan that I'm coming but not enough to wake Ashly. I walk over and put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a little shake.  
"C'mon, lets go for a walk." I say tugging his hand away from his face gently and taking it in mine. He looks up and glares at me, but relents nevertheless, unfolding himself, letting me pull him to the forest by his hand. There's a trail and we follow not straying too far that we can't see the light of the campfire.  
Rowans quiet, quieter than as of late. I leave him for a while, letting him think, as we walk hand in hand threw the forest.  
"Do you really think that we can find him? Alive? I mean he could be dead by now. Or, or he could be in some kind of facility where they experiment on Psi!" Rowan says, taking back his hand, raking both of his hands threw his hair, the stress and fear finally catching up to him. "Who knows where is, he could be halfway across the country by now, HE COULD BE IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY!" He gives a load shout, then thrusts his hands to his left, uprooting a tree, sending it flying.  
I grab him by the shoulders and turn him so I can look him in the face, "ROWAN! Get it together, you can go around destroying trees!" I shout into his face, giving him a firm shake. He seems to freeze, staring into my eyes. I stay still, not saying a thing, waiting for his reaction.  
Suddenly his arms are around me and his clutching me like I'm a life raft, like he's holding on for dear life. I relax into his arms wrapping my own around his strong back, taking in his warmth.  
"Thank you Els," He says nuzzling my head, which comes up to just under his chin. I'm stunned.  
"For- for what?" I say, fairly sure my face is red, along with my ears, thankful that he's so close that he can't see either. But he is close enough to feel my heart pounding in my chest unfortunately.  
"For being there Els, for being here for me, for Ashly." I don't know what to say, of course I'm here, that's what friends are for.  
"Of course, I'm here Rowan. I'll always be here for you," I say, "Seth and Ashly too. You guys are like family."  
At the sentiment Rowan rests his chin on my head. "Thanks" He says again. After a moment he finally releases me from his bear hug. Suddenly the air is full of tension, and Rowan and I seem can't make eye contact, looking everywhere but each other.  
"Uhh, we should probably head back to the camp. . ." I say, looking down at my feet.  
"Uhh, yeah, yeah we should," He replies, and starts walking back the way we came. I turn to follow but trip on a tree root. Everything slows down. I'm falling forward, the ground rushing up to meet my face, when a force pulls me back up before I can hit the ground. Rowans strong arms wrap around my waist to steady me.  
"Are you okay?" He says.  
"Uh, yeah, thanks," I say, slightly breathless, looking into his eyes. One of his hand leave my waist and move up towards my face. I freeze. His hand finds a stray hair on my face and tucks it behind my ear, looking as if he's somewhere else, examining my face. Then he's back, recognition lighting his face and he quickly releases my waist.  
"C'mon, lets get going." He says, and is that? Is that a blush I see blooming on his cheeks? He starts to walk back to the camp.  
I follow him, still in shock.


End file.
